


Playdate

by Moonrose001



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood Drinking, Blood and Violence, Fluff, Kidfic, Lance adopts an alien, M/M, Post-Season/Series 04, alright i know how this looks, trust me i've got you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-01-30 11:58:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12653118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonrose001/pseuds/Moonrose001
Summary: When Lance finds a rock in a pile of Galra corpses, he just thinks it's pretty and takes it home with him. Becoming a parent wasn't part of the plan. And so wasn't finding a playmate for his child, and tolerating their parent.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> How did this fic happen? Idk. I've been sitting on the idea for a while. Inspired by some cute movies - such as Lilo & Stitch - and Gore October.  
> Now i don't like gore, so it won't really be too much of an element, but i'll put warnings in the beginning of chaps. 
> 
> Otherwise enjoy!

When Voltron gets there, the place is already cold. The locals don’t know what drove the Galra away, only saw a small shuttle fly off. They warn about the nihitas, but none of them actually bother to explain what they are, only adding that they should be sleeping at this point of the year.

The snow is covered in blue secrete and the brick-black color of Galra blood. The Galra corpses armors leak blood, but seeing the way their limps bends unnaturally, Lance has a feeling it was force that killed them.

They walk around, looking for leads for why the Galra left so abruptly, when Lance notices that one of them are holding something. Lance can’t tell what it is at first, and kneels down to open the fingers of the soldier, hoping it isn’t a bomb or something.

It’s a blue rock. It’s round and has a surface like crumbled paper. It seems like some sort of bracket fungus is growing on it, swallowing its blue surface underneath folds of sheer white velvet.  
“What are you doing?” Pidge asks behind him.

“I found a rock,” Lance says and throws it in the air, catching it easily despite its weight.

“We gotta go,” Pidge says, rolling their eyes, and Lance nods and puts the rock in his pocket. He doesn’t expect Pidge to mind; the team has pretty much given up on trying to stop him collecting trinkets from each planet.

\-----

Lance wakes up because he’s cold. It sounds weird, since he’s blasted up the heat, but it’s really, really bad. He stands up and grabs his robe before going to check the thermostat, but the temperature is as he likes it and despite the thoughts of feeling cold, he actually feels fine once he takes the time to notice his body.

_Cold._

He blinks and turns around.

The rock is on the table, illuminated slightly with the walls’ subtle light.

 _Cold_.

Without thinking about it, he goes to grab the rock and walks back to bed. It’s ice cold in his palm, and he puts it underneath his shirt, getting goose bumps as its cold texture touches him. Eventually it warms up, and Lance falls asleep.

\-----

It becomes a habit to keep the rock warm after that. Lance can’t leave the rock without getting the phantom feeling of being cold and lonely. So he puts it in the chest pocket of his jacket, when he’s in the Castle and puts it in the belt pocket when he’s in armor. That prospect of accidently breaking the rock during battle terrifies him, but he knows that he can’t leave it behind.

One night, Lance does his usual routine and goes to tuck himself in bed with the rock, when he feels it shake. He startles at first, thinking the Castle is being attacked, but then it shakes again. He sits up, and holds it in between his hands. It’s warm and feels almost soft. It shakes again, and Lance can feel something pressing into his hand through it.

He holds it up to his ear and listens.

There’s soft breathing in there. He holds his own breath, listening carefully, and yes that is breathing. The stone – no the egg – shakes again and he feels something that might be a tiny hand press into his skin through the thin shell of the egg.

Lance wets his lips. Oh boy, this is – he should’ve guessed –

Alright, what does he do? This could be the beginning of Alien (1979) or Lilo and Stitch (2002). Knowing the Paladins’ luck, it’s probably the former. Shit. Shit, he has to tell the team. He doesn’t know what’s in that egg! What if it’s some dangerous animal that’s going to eat all of them in their sleep?

 _Cold_.

Lance shivers. Alright. Alright, the phantom feelings have to be… probably is the baby communicating.

If so, the baby doesn’t seem to be –

But he has to tell the team, it’s the responsible thing to do –

Lance closes his eyes. He lies back down again, and puts the egg in his armpit, its favorite spot because of all the warmth. He feels the baby settle down and a feeling of tiredness overcoming it, exhausted from moving so much. He can’t just abandon it. It hasn’t done anything. When it hatches, he will tell the team and they’ll reunite it with its parents. Yeah, that sounds like a solid plan.

\----

A solid plan Lance apparently had no intention following through. Every night he tucks in with the egg, closely listening to it. It’s mostly silent in there, but he can feel it move sometimes, tug at his mind when it needs warmth or to hear his voice.

And it’s so crazy, but Lance can feel its soft heartbeat, can feel the way it imprints on the smell of his sweat. He can feel its loneliness when he comes home from a long battle, its need for attention when he’s been eating with the team.

And it sounds so crazy, but Lance just knows that it could never hurt anyone.

“Hey,” Hunk says one day, as he chops some vegetables for a soup. Lance has offered to help, but has been kindly rejected since Hunk says he ‘cuts the pieces too big and in uneven sizes’. “You’ve been going to bed early these days.”

“Yeah,” Lance says and he tells himself that this is it. If Hunk asks why he will tell the truth.

“I’m glad you’re listening to your body,” Hunk says instead. “Can you get the salt for me?”

“Sure.”

Later they argue about the amount and intensity of spices allowed into the soup, seeing as Pidge dislikes spicy food and too much pepper gives Keith stomachaches. They settle on a medium amount, and they even make Pidge taste it to make sure that it’s alright.

For the first time since Lance acquired the egg, he wonders what the creature inside the egg eats and whether he even has anything remotely close to its preferred diet. In that case he would have to return it to his planet immediately.

Wait. When wasn’t he supposed to?

"What do you eat, pequeñe?" he asks and feels a soft rumble in return. He thinks he can hear the small scraping sound, as if it’s scratching the inside of the egg.

The creature inside is becoming bigger, and Lance knows because he can now downright see its three clawed fingers press into the soft wall of the egg, trying to break it. Sometimes the egg even rolls as it fights to get through and Lance cancels movie night and feigns exhaustion and the need to play video games, as he nervously waits for the egg to hatch. It’s exhausting itself every time it attempts, but it’s acquiring more energy each day to persist. Lance has been in the Castle’s scullery to collect any sort of food he can imagine – meat, eggs, milk, cheese, vegetables and goo. He blends each food and separates it in small jars, and puts them in the fridge. He claims it’s DIY masks to the team, and they leave it alone.

He doesn’t know why he’s making it so difficult for himself and why he just doesn’t tell the team, but he doesn’t want him or the child to be stressed during its hatching. He needs to welcome it in a relaxed and soothing environment.

He knows that after his sister gave birth, the child was exhausted and slept for a week. He expects for the creature inside to act the same.

\-----

He’s eating dinner with the team, idly exchanging info about the latest planet, when he hears the sound of a crack. He quickly covers it up with his coughing.

“Did you hear that?” Keith asks. After the big mission with Kolivan, he’s been around a lot more often, and honestly it’s really, really nice to have him back.

“The sound of Lance coughing?” Pidge asks.

“I need to pee,” Lance says.

“Okay?” Pidge answers and Lance gets up and coughs a little loudly to cover the second sound of a crack. As soon as he’s outside the eating hall, he pulls the egg out of his pocket. There are two large cracks in the egg, and Lance feels himself start to sweat. It’s happening. It’s happening!

He’s got to get ready. He runs to the kitchen and quickly puts all the jars and groceries in a bag, before running to his room. Alright, alright, lots of warmth! Yes. He can do this. He can. Oh god, he’s not ready at all.

He’s warming sheets on a hot water bottle when he hears the third crack, this one so loud his cough wouldn’t have been able to cover it up. Albumen wets his pocket. He washes and sterilizes his hands, before softly pulling out the egg, trying not to jolt with shock as he feels it crack further apart underneath his gentle fingers.

A small grey leg or arm with three clawed fingers is sticking out of a crack, and Lance places the egg on the warm sheet. He feels a soft squeaky whimper come from the creature, and fearing that he might do something wrong, he watches in silent fascination as it breaks entirely free from the egg.

“Hello,” he softly coons and it crooks its head towards his voice. It sorta looks like… a teddy bear, mostly hairless and not much bigger than his hand. It’s clearly built to walk on two legs, with long legs and two sets of arms. A light layer of green down grows on its purple body. Its ribs go down to its hips, but they’re far in-between and seem to have a finer network of bones peaking through skin almost like a fish’s. Its face is oval, and large cat-like ears are on its head, lowered downwards. Its large eyelids are closed and its mouth looks almost human-like.

“Hey, pequeñe,” he whispers and it squeaks again, clawing towards him, its claws getting stuck in the threads of the sheets.

“Aw, baby,” he coos, and he feels the phantom feeling of need and love coming from it. He blinks. “Is that you?”

The feeling of need grows bigger and it whimpers. Lonely.

He picks it up, and grabs the bottle of Kaltenecker’s milk first. It’s packed with fat and nourishment and most species on Earth can drink it as infants. Perhaps…

He sucks some up with a dropper and it squeaks at him in complaint.

_Hungry. Cold. Starving. Need._

He puts the dropper in its mouth and it suckles for a moment, before it freezes and spits out the milk. Lance tries to insist, like he’s seen his sister done with her nipple, but eventually he stops.

_Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Hungry. Starving._

Lance is starting to panic a little bit at this point, and he softly strokes it with his fingers, when it sniffs at his finger.

_Food._

He looks at his hand.

“Goo?” he asks it and reaches over for the goo. He suckles some up but again it refuses to eat. It keeps turning its snout against his fingers, and he looks at it in hopelessness when it starts licking his finger.

Smell. Food. Hungry. Starving.

Lance stares at the finger it’s looking at. A cut had happened while helping with dinner, and he looks at it before holding his finger into the creature’s nose.

He can feel it practically drool with hunger and it fruitlessly nips at his finger with toothless jaws, before he gets up. It yelps as he gets up and starts to blindly crawl around his bed, crying out for him in an alarmingly high tone.

He gets the knife Keith put on his bed a few months ago like a weirdly considerate creeper and sits down again, before he slits the tip of his finger. The creature shivers with hunger, and almost growls with it, its arms and legs gaining speed as it opens its jaws in the direction of his finger.

“Calm down, baby,” Lance can’t help but chuckle and puts the finger at the creature’s mouth. It opens its mouth and closes it around Lance’s finger. It suckles greedily, but softly. Lance wonders if that’s normal – if the kid just found a replacement for its proper nourishment or if it really is supposed to drink blood.

But in a way, he supposes it makes sense. Plasma also exists in milk, and contains fat globules and corpuscles. The creatures drinks greedily and by the time his finger has gone numb, it settles down underneath his jawline and yawns. Lance nuzzles it with his nose, pressing soft kisses on it, and he can feel its content and tiredness, the love and trust it harbors for him growing stronger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Woah, what’s that?” Hunk asks and points at Diego, who flinches at the attention.

One thing the creature has in common with human babies is that it does sleep a lot. It wakes up every sixth hour or so for food and sleeps for the rest of the time. When they’re in the Castle and he isn’t training, he usually carries it in his inner breast pocket, walking around with a shawl on top of his body and faking a cold – furiously refusing Coran’s offer of a healing pod – and so far it’s been sleeping on his hot water bottle when he trains.

He knows that the Galra will one day ruin his availability, and he hectically plans for that day. He bottles up his blood more than he should and stores them in the fridge for emergencies.

After about a week the child’s fur falls off, and its skin starts to harden and form in scale-like patterns. Its eyes are starting to open, and they look like glass pebbles of blue and green. Lance isn’t sure whether it can see yet, since it’s been following him with its head ever since it hatched and it doesn’t have any pupils. The second week after its hatching, it requires food more often and Lance finds himself skipping showers after training just to make it.

At dinner he inhales the goo, just to have time to get back.

“Why are you such in a hurry?” Shiro asks.

“I’m just really hungry,” Lance replies.

Hunk is looking worriedly at him. After Keith left, Lance had a period of time where he locked himself into either his room or Pidge’s (to play video games), because Keith leaving felt too much like burying him, which had been a little melodramatic, thinking back on it. Sure the guy still has a long mission now and then, but even if he isn’t technically necessary to form Voltron anymore, he still remembers where his home is and lives in the Castle for most of the time, and that had been enough for Lance to thaw and feel okay again.

Now that he thinks about it, maybe that’s why Hunk is starting to become worried about him, seeing that from the outside Lance seems to be isolating himself again. Lance promises himself to make up for it.

\----

He can feel his baby’s love one night. Strong and unnecessary and unconditional. He looks at it resting on his pillow besides his head. It’s grown bigger, he realizes, almost taking up the entire pillow, double the size it was when it hatched.

“I love you too,” he whispers, and its half-lowered eyes glow back at him. It twitches, before it crawls towards him, mewling for attention.

He lifts it as he chuckles, and puts it on his chest.

“Are you hungry?” Lance asks, but it only lowers itself on top of him, closing its eyes as it butts its head into his chin. He presses gentle kisses into its forehead, and it rubs against his lips in return, a soft growl starting to erupt from its throat. “You want to cuddle with papa, pequeñe?”

He hears it repeat the word papa in its head, as if confused.

He points to himself. “I’m papa. You are… well, I guess pequeñe isn’t really a name, huh.”

It blinks lazily at him.

“What do you want to be called, huh?” Lance asks. “How about… Sofia?”

It doesn’t react.

“Hey, that’s your nana’s name, don’t be indifferent,” he continues. “Okay, how about… hm…” He thought about another individual who’s inspired him almost as much as his mom, whom changed the world and whom pequeñe would want to be proud of being named by. “What about Beyoncé?”

Again, total indifference and Lance feels offended. But he guesses that he will figure out a name sometime soon.

\-----

He’s flying with the team, securing a planet’s atmosphere from Galra invaders, when his kid wakes up and starts to cry.

He tries to push it to the back of his mind, but the sound is so immediate, so full of need it ain’t exactly easy. His kid isn’t hungry or anything, he just woke up alone and became scared. It’s like a knife to the heart to listen to so far away.

“Alright, am I the only one sensing that?” Hunk asks, and Lance jolts. It can’t be that the bond in Voltron…

“Me too,” Allura chips in. “It sounds like somebody is crying for help.”

“How?” Shiro asks. Oh shit. “It feels like it’s coming from…”

“Lance, is that you?” Pidge asks.

“No,” Lance quickly denies, and in panic he shuts off the communication lines, knowing that they can all communicate telepathically if they really try. He swallows dryly for a moment, his kid’s cries only turning louder and more desperate, and he has to call Coran.

“Red Lion?” Coran calls out which Lance will never get used to.

“Coran?” Lance answers. “If the others call you, don’t pick up the phone, okay? I need to talk with you in private. Please.”

“Sure,” Coran drawls, clearly skeptical. “What is bothering you, my boy?”

“Can you go to the fridge in the East wing on the third floor. There’s a black box behind the green mush. Grab one of the vials and the dripper inside the box and go to my room with it.”

“Why?”

“Just… please do it. Don’t tell the others, I’ll explain when – “

Voltron shakes as a ray hits them and Lance has to hang up, opening the communication lines.

“I’m back,” Lance says.

“Sword,” Shiro commands and Lance draws the sword.

The fight sucks. They’re up against a small fleet, but their ass is kicked thoroughly. Lance is disoriented with the feeling of his kid screaming for him but eventually, and he can tell that his inability to focus is distracting the others as well.

He can tell just how much in trouble he is, when Shiro doesn’t talk to any of them on their way home. They separate, and in the stillness of having his mind for himself, he can hear his kid’s soft whimpers.

“Diego,” Lance calls out, and he can feel his kid straighten with attention at his voice. “You like that?” He asks as he lands Red into the hangar.

The happiness in his kid’s heart doesn’t really come from the name, but rather the realization that Lance is coming.

“Diego it is then,” he says, getting out of his seat and patting Red in consolation for his poor pilot skills the past hour. “Papa is coming. Are you sitting with Coran?”

Diego doesn’t understand the question, but the whimpers are becoming louder as he senses Lance near them.

“Lance!” he hears Shiro call out for him as Lance shoots out of the hangar doors.

“Yes?” Lance says, not slowing down. ”I really have to pee, Shiro, can we do this after a shower?”

Hopefully, Shiro will have calmed down a little bit after a shower.

He doesn’t wait for Shiro’s answer as he rounds a corner, and only picks up speed as the sound of his kid gets louder.

Finally he breaks into his room, gasping for breath.

Coran and Keith are sitting on his bed, Coran holding Diego in his arms.

Diego was already looking at the door when Lance broke in, and he immediately wails and raises his four arms at Lance, starting to cry.

Lance shoots forwards and picks Diego up. Diego starts to howl in relief as his arms clenches around Lance’s neck and Lance lulls him softly in his arms. He doesn’t know when it happened, but Diego is as big as a 6-month year old baby now, and is a solid weight in Lance’s arms.

Neither Coran nor Keith say anything as Lance comforts Diego into restless sleep. Only then does Lance sigh and sit down on his bed, rubbing calming circles onto Diego’s back.

“What are you doing here?” Lance whispers to Keith, who’s staring at them with big eyes.

“Coran became nervous when he saw you were collecting blood and asked me to come with him,” Keith whispers back, clearly angry. “What is that?”

“Excuse me?” Lance says, his jaw snapping together with the sudden rush of anger. “My kid is not a what, asshole.”

“Chill,” Keith whispers back, as if Lance is the one overreacting.

“Quiet, you’ll both wake them,” Coran busts in. “Lance, how long has this been going on?”

“Please don’t tell Shiro,” Lance says, immediately reminded of what will happen if Shiro finds out about it and cringing at the thought. “He’ll take Diego away.”

“Who’s Diego?” a voice behind him asks.

Lance freezes and can’t help but immediately shield Diego from Shiro’s eyes.

Shiro is standing by the door, his hair damp and wearing a black blouse and casual slacks. It’s times like now that Lance remembers that Shiro was a model cadet because he was a talented pilot but also because someone actually did learn how to finish their showers after 5 minutes at the Garrison.

“Lance kidnapped a kid,” Keith immediately snitches, because _of course_.

Lance can’t say anything, a lump in his throat as he stares at Shiro in frozen fear, his arms growing tighter around Diego’s body.

It’s silent while Shiro waits for Lance to say something, but Lance can only feel his eyes become glossy, and it’s Coran who breaks in: “Now, now, I’m sure Lance didn’t mean to bring a baby into the Castle of Lions on purpose.”

Lance stares down at Diego’s head. “I thought it was a rock,” Lance whispers. “Not an egg.”

Keith sighs, and Shiro rubs his brow.

“Why did you keep it… them, a secret?” Shiro asks.

“You would ask me to give them back,” Lance says. “And Diego already imprinted on me. I thought… I don’t know.” The thought of Diego growing up in Lance’s room fills Lance’s mind and makes his eyes water further. “You’re right. I didn’t think about the future.”

Shiro’s face expression smooths a little at that. “How old are they?” Shiro asks.

“Two months,” Lance whispers back. “I named them Diego.”

At the name, Diego flicks an ear and growls a little.

“It’s been feeding on Lance’s blood,” Keith says, and the calm expression on Shiro’s face immediately turns into a storm cloud.

“What?” he snaps.

“It’s not what you think,” Lance quickly says. “I didn’t have anything that reminded enough of their natural diet. They don’t want to eat me, they love me.”

“And how exactly do you know that?” Shiro asks, his voice raising and Lance can’t blame him. He knows that to Shiro the Paladins are family, and nothing is more important than that – besides saving the universe, but then again they’re living it so, that those thing didn’t really exclude each other.

Diego blinks their eyes open, and quickly looks towards the noise, before seeing the other people in the room and pressing their face into Lance’s neck.

“They’re able to project their feelings and thoughts,” Lance says. “They’ve been able to do that ever since they were an egg and they needed something they couldn’t say outright.”

“Put them down,” Shiro commands. “Coran, take him to the infirmary.”

“Now, now,” Coran says, a little nervous. “Just because they’re unconventional for humans, do not make either blood feeding or telepathy wrong. Many species, such as the Alteans, extend their speech with telepathy. There are even species that aren’t able to use speech, and only communicate through telepathy!”

“And Diego feeding off Lance’s blood? It’s learning that Lance’s body is a source of food,” Keith exclaims, and Diego whines in fear at the anger in the Marmoran’s voice.

“The blood is probably just a supplement for what they’re supposed to drink while they’re growing,” Coran assures.

“What are you arguing for?” Lance hears Pidge ask as they walk inside with Hunk following them. The room is starting to feel crowded.

“Woah, what’s that?” Hunk asks and points at Diego, who flinches at the attention.

“You’re scaring them,” Lance hisses and Hunk raises two apologetic hands.

“It’s not going to matter either way, since they’re not staying,” Shiro decides, a note of finality in his voice.

“Shiro, they’re not old enough to take of themselves!” Lance argues. “If we give them back now, they’ll die.”

“You’re crazy!” Keith shouts. “We have no idea what it is!”

“I told you to stop calling them ‘it’!” Lance shouts back.

“Lance,” Shiro says and puts a metal hand on the arm that’s holding Diego and Diego starts to quiver. “Hand over the kid, and go to the healing pod.”

That’s when Diego opens their mouth and starts to scream. Lance can feel the terror like a bucket of ice cold water drench him, and he stares at Diego as they try to claw into their armor, feeling exposed and desperately seeking shelter.

Their trust starts to flicker. They don’t think Lance can protect them. They’re scared.

“Get out,” Lance says as he slowly starts to stroke their head. Their screams have silenced the room. “All of you are scaring him. Get out. Now.”

Hunk is the first one to listen, quickly going. Coran goes too, and Pidge follows, still looking confused.

Keith and Shiro are stubborn, Shiro’s eyes hard as they look at Lance and Diego. But finally, Shiro nods sharply and takes Keith’s arm before leaving.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the shortest chapter in history, but i'm trying to keep the updates regular and so far that means i have to cut the chapters a little short. I otherwise hope you enjoy!

After some time in his room without his team, Lance has had time to think his situation through. In the end he can’t blame the team for their reaction – Diego doesn’t look like them, and none of them – including Lance - really have any idea of what the kid is capable of. They could be right, and Lance could very well be wrong.

So he has to leave. Because there’s no chance in fucking Hell he’s just going to abandon Diego.

So he grabs his bag, and fills it with the little stuff he has. Diego is following him with their eyes, nervous and still a little jittery from the confrontation.

“Hey, baby, no worries, Papa’s gonna take care of you,” he assures and picks Diego up. Diego almost automatically hoists their legs around Lance’s waist, and Lance picks up the bag with his other hand. “We’re getting out of here.”

He quickly walks out of his room, but just as he rounds the corner, Shiro shows up.

Shiro stops and quickly looks from the bag to Diego to Lance’s face.

“Whatever you’re going to do, let’s talk about it first,” Shiro quickly proposes.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Lance says. “I’m not abandoning Diego.”

“Okay,” Shiro says, which surprises Lance just a little bit. “Let’s go talk about it, put down some ground rules. Okay?”

Suspiciously, Lance narrows his eyes at his leader, feeling his arm become tighter around Diego’s body. “You’re being honest, right?”

“Yes,” Shiro says, a little exasperated. “I’m not gonna take them.”

Slowly, Lance nods but he doesn’t drop the bag. He follows Shiro unto the Bridge, where the team is already waiting.

He can hear Diego whimper with discomfort, and Lance zips open his jacket and tugs them in the inside of it. He can feel that Diego feels a little safer like that.

“Wait, why are you holding a bag?” Hunk asks, his voice a mix of annoyance and panic.

No one answers. Shiro drapes himself over Keith’s control panel, his eyes darkening in that way that means that he’s carefully measuring the situation and considering what to do.

“If Diego leaves, I do too,” Lance says.

“Are you kidding me?” Keith exclaims.

“Keith,” Shiro says, his tone warning.

“Look,” Allura says, a little soft. “We can work with this, but we have to put down some ground rules.”

Lance looks at her. “I’m listening.”

“First off, we have to try and find a substitute for … Diego’s diet at the current moment,” Allura says. “Second of all, you will go to daily checkups to make sure that your blood levels are stabile.”

“And what happens if their feeding starts to affect me?” Lance asks. “And we haven’t found a substitute yet?”

Allura and Shiro share a concerned look.

“Well,” Allura says, drawing out the word.

“I guess it compares to why you can’t feed them?” Shiro says. “If it’s slight anemia...“

“It will be and it will happen soon,” Lance says, and sighs. With the sigh all his tension and mistrust disappear. “They’re eating more and more, and I will give it a month more before I won’t be able to keep up. I’m actually glad you want to help with that.”

At that some of the tension melts in the room.

Diego obviously senses it because they look up from Lance’s collar and curiously peak around, ears raising a little bit in attention.

Hunk is the first one to gather up courage to approach. “Hey,” he says in a gentle voice. “I’m Hunk. You must be Diego, right?”

A clicking sound comes from Diego’s throat, wary but calm. Lance blinks in surprise. He hasn’t heard that one before.

“I’m Hunk,” Hunk introduces himself and holds out his hand. “I’m your uncle.”

Diego’s interest is piqued enough for the child to reach out for Hunk’s hand. They close their clawed fingers around the tip of Hunk’s index finger and wiggles it a little.

“Aaaaw, they like me,” Hunk says, his brows falling as he makes puppy eyes at Diego. “Can I hold them?”

“Great, Hunk’s already attached,” Keith drawls, and Lance does try to give Diego to Hunk.

Diego isn’t that brave yet though and clings to Lance’s shirt. Still, as soon as they realize that Lance won’t force them they reach out for Hunk again and swings his finger, chirping in amusement.

“They’re so cute!” Hunk says. “Shiro, can we keep them?”

“When have they last fed?” Shiro asks instead, voice hard.

“When Coran gave them food,” Lance informs. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“It was no burden, my boy,” Coran assures.

At that Diego looks at Coran, their chirps slowing down to a coo. They remember Coran feeding and holding them, but they’re not quite sure what to do with that information.

“That’s your Grandpa,” Lance informs, ignoring Coran’s insulted huff.

Daringly, Diego reaches out their arms and Coran whoops, before carefully picking Diego up from Lance’s arms.

A little nervous, Diego twists and turns in Coran’s arms, shooting the others edgy looks, before determinedly gently taking Coran’s face in their hands and leaning in to absentmindedly lick it.

A startled, joyful chuckle bubbles out of Coran’s throat, and Diego chirps. Lance can feel Diego’s joy grow in his chest, and he can’t help but smile. This is how it should’ve gone from the start.

Coran sheds a few tears after Diego (completely unexpectedly) gestures to be held by Pidge. Pidge, who had had the least to say about all of this, not displaying hostility nor acceptation.

“I never thought the day would come where I would become a Grandpa,” Coran says, when Lance looks at him in worry.

Pidge holds Diego awkwardly, like they’re a weird pet instead of small baby. “Ew,” they exclaim in disgust when Diego leans forwards to lick them, but Diego is headstrong and continues. They repeat the ritual on Hunk as well, but after that they seem tired and want to go back to Lance, which is good because Allura, Shiro and Keith look far from ready to be licked by Diego or even hold them.

“We’ll have to take a small blood sample,” Coran says. “Just to get an overall feeling of their biology. How rough is their skin?”

Lance shrugs. “I don’t know.”

Diego immediately senses Lance’s anxiety, and looks from Lance to Coran who’s going to get a needle. Diego looks at the needle, then at Lance and starts to whimper.

“Diego, this is going to hurt a little bit, okay baby?” Lance mumbles in Spanish. “We’re not doing it to hurt you. We just need to so we can find food for you easier, alright?”

Diego starts to whimper, clutching Lance around the neck.

“Do it quick,” Lance whispers before starting to rub Diego’s back. “When this is over, we’re going to take a long bath together, baby, and Papa’s gonna make you lotsa bubbles. And you know, if you don’t want to nap, we can go see the Lions - ”

Coran pricks Diego in the leg, and Diego wails. Lance grabs them by the ankle to hold them still, and Diego’s wails become louder, panicked.

“You’re such a good baby. After this Papa’s gonna get you a treat,” Lance says, his voice a little hoarse. Diego isn’t outright terrified, but they don’t like the pain and they don’t want to experience it no matter how short it is. They don’t understand why Lance is putting them through this, but trusts him when he says it’s for the best. “I’m sorry, baby, just for a little longer, you’re being so strong – “

Coran extracts the needle and Lance immediately lets go of Diego’s thick ankle. Diego cries and wails for a good few minutes, and Lance walks around in circles, varying between comforting his baby and trying to cheer him up.

Finally, Diego’s whimpers have settled and Lance’s waves the team goodbye as he goes to get Diego’s promised treat. Diego gurgles down the blood, and Lance really wishes he could give them more than just a regular meal, but it seems to help on Diego’s mood.

Lance does as promised, and draws a bath for both of them. He makes lots of bubbles, and Diego plays them while on Lance’s lap, as Lance gently massages the oil cream he normally uses in his hair into Diego’s skin. He tried soap in the beginning, only to realize that Diego doesn’t really sweat and that the soap irritates their skin. Usually a quick wipe and a good layer of oil-crème will keep his scales clean and shiny.

Diego yawns after that, all of the interactions and drama of the day obviously having tired them out. Lance settles with them in bed, wraps himself around Diego’s body like usual and they fall asleep.

\----

Lance wakes up a few hours later. Diego is hungry, which is a normal second-hand feeling for Lance to experience, but this time the feeling is accompanied with a new sound.

Diego’s stomach is growling.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright, before anybody judges me for the short chapter, i just wanted to say that these past two chapters were meant to be together and it'd ruin the system to make this chapter longer. so.
> 
> Crappy reason for my posting schedule aside, shoutout to Numbernine for editing, this chapter probably wouldn't have come out if he hadn't, and also shoutout to JasonBunny for reminding me that just because i completed this story in my head, doesn't mean i actually completed writing/editing and publishing it.

Lance’s got Diego’s pooping regime down to a t.

They pooped after every meal, and the consistency was creamy and soft, like a healthy baby’s should be, and didn’t smell that bad. In the beginning, Lance had made a towel diaper for Diego, but his kid was smart and after having watched Lance poop several times – yes he poops with the door open or with the kid in the bathroom, anything else would set Diego off in a tantrum – Diego started crawling to the toilet when he knew he had to poop, and since the toilet was too far up, Lance had to lift him up every time. But at least Lance doesn’t have to wipe his kid’s butt.

Now some – Pidge – would say that knowing how often your kid pooped was a waste of memory, but to the contrary Lance knew that every good parent knew 1. When their baby had pooped last. 2. What consistency it was.

So he knows that when Diego’s stomach starts to growl? It’s not because his tummy hurts. He pooped after dinner.

He sits up, and Diego sits up too, and stares at him with big, glassy eyes.

“Are you hungry, baby?” Lance asks, but he can feel Diego’s stomach clenching in a way Lance hasn’t noticed before.

Diego whines, and Lance picks them up.

Lance sits in the kitchen with them, the lights dim to not wake Diego up to much. Diego drinks his bottle, but the hunger persists and by the time Diego has emptied his third bottle, Lance knows he’s got to do something.

Diego whimpers.

“Baby, you have to sleep with Uncle Hunk for a few hours, okay?”

Diego cries out in protest, and Lance shushes him, fearing that it might wake someone up.

“I know, I know,” Lance quickly soothes, “but Papa needs to get you food, okay?”

At the prospect of food, Diego quiets a little and Lance quickly crosses the hallway to get to Hunk’s room. He opens the door without knocking and finds Hunk sleeping in a ball.

“Hunk,” Lance whispers. “Hunk!”

Hunk wakes up with a gasp, and looks at the door in confusion.

“Did I miss training?” Hunk sleepily asks.

“No, I just need you to watch Diego for a while,” Lance tells him and plops Diego onto Hunk’s stomach.

“What, why?” Hunk asks, immediately more awake. He automatically puts his hand on Diego’s back

“I’ll tell you later, don’t wake the others,” Lance says, knowing Keith will make a big deal out of it.

“Lance,” Hunk hisses, but Lance is already gone.

\----

Lance isn’t surprised when Shiro is angrily awaiting him when he lands Red in the hangar. He stays in the Lion for a bit, looking down at Shiro through Red’s visors and camera, before he sighs and decides to just rip off the bandaid.

It took him longer than anticipated to get the proper kill. First he had to made sure that the thing he brought home wasn’t poisonous, which meant that he had shot all sorts of animals to scan their insides. Most of them had high levels of vitamin, but eventually Lance finds a bunny-like creature with green feathers, big eyes and a face so weirdly put together that they look like Van Gogh in a particular intense self-portrait.

Shiro is upset, understandably. The annoying thing about Shiro is that he won’t just rant like normal people, but he will actually make you talk to him which takes so much longer than just listening, apologizing and going back to your room.

“Diego is hungry,” Lance says. “I panicked and just left to go find him food, and for that I’m sorry. I should’ve told you beforehand and asked for help. Me not doing so was very irresponsible.”

Shiro clearly recognizes lip service when he hears it, but he also realizes that there are other priorities, because he silently goes to Lance’s Lion and helps him carry the basket of dead chicken-bunnies to the kitchen.

Shiro promises to pluck the prey, while Lance goes to get Diego. Hunk is already standing at the door by the time he gets there though. Diego’s eyes and face is swollen with frustration, and Hunk looks a little stressed out and very sleep-deprived.

They wail as soon as they see Lance, and start twisting in Hunk’s arms.

“Come here, baby,” Lance says, a little tired and Diego willingly reaches out their arms. They curl up in a ball in his arms, shaking and a whining.

“I know, baby, you’re hungry,” Lance coos.

“I’m gonna help,” Hunk says, and Lance can’t protest. They walk to the kitchen together, where Shiro has plucked three bunnies and cut their bodies to pieces, organs resting in a bowl.

Diego straightens as soon as they smell the blood, and turn in Lance’s arms to look. They start crying, trying to get out of Lance’s arms, the sound of their stomach growling only becoming louder. 

“Relax, buddy,” Lance says, sitting down. “Open your mouth for me.”

Diego whines but does so, and nope, they haven’t grown teeth in the amount of time it took to catch the prey.

“We need to blend the meat, baby,” Lance tells them. “So you need to be patient. Can you do that? Can you be a good kid for papa?”

Diego doesn’t nod, but Lance can feel their willingness and when he nods at Hunk, the mechanic gets the blender and starts shredding the organs into a nasty, liver-colored smoothie. Diego is practically drooling by the time Hunk pours the smoothie into a cup.

Lance takes a spork, and dips it into the smoothie. The smoothie is thick enough for it to stay on the spork, and Diego opens their mouth wide.

They swallow the smoothie eagerly, their stomach grumbling in hunger as it happens.

“Such a good kid,” Lance praises as he feeds Diego. “Thank you for your help, you can go to bed now.”

Hunk nods and pets Diego’s head before he leaves. Diego whines a little as their Uncle leaves, but is quickly back to thinking about the smoothie, emptying two cups before slowing down. Shiro stays, continuing to make the dead animals into meat.

“I’m sorry for waking you up,” Lance says at some point.

“I wasn’t sleeping anyway,” Shiro says. “And now there’s meat at least.”

“Yeah,” Lance says, and doesn’t notice when Diego playfully starts sucking on Lance’s fingers instead of the spork. Lance pulls his fingers away and Diego shakes with amusement, grabbing for Lance’s fingers again with all four hands and Lance pokes them in the cheek in retaliation. Diego giggles – a weird dove-like cooing sound – and catches Lance’s finger in their mouth again, holding Lance's wrist and arms still with their hands. 

“Does that mean you’re not hungry anymore, pequeñe?” he asks. He puts down the spork, and picks Diego up. Diego purrs, curling up and sighing.

“You know, I never thought you had a responsible side,” Shiro says. “Is it something Diego awoke or…?”

“I have lots of younger siblings and my siblings have children too, so I’m used to it,” Lance says, and kisses Diego’s head.

Shiro tilts his head. “So you can be responsible?”

Lance pouts at him. “I have someone who needs me here now,” he says. “It’s easy to be reckless in space. It’s so big, and I don’t know if I ever get to see my family again. But having Diego, I don’t know, is really grounding?”

Shiro smiles knowingly. “Well. Congratulations on becoming a dad,” he says a little amused, and then he looks at his watch. “Oh boy, Lotor is coming in two hours, we better get cleaned up.”

Lance stares at him. “ _What_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is this what you want *throws small photos of Lotor at y'all* is this what you like
> 
>  
> 
> [Tumblr???](https://moonrose001.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance smiles hesitantly. “Hello there, Ranma,” he greets. “Welcome to the Castle.”

Now, it’s not like Lance hates Lotor. Not really. Lotor hasn’t done a lot of stupid shit when it comes down to it. Said things that made Lance feel dumb, hit on Allura, cheated them over and over again, but it’s not like he went around and killed children or something, so.

After they made the truce with Lotor, Lance had mostly had a very wary, yet neutral relationship with him. Lotor’s visits were usually very short and concrete, and well, Shiro and Allura were usually the ones to talk with him.

Still, something tells Lance that it might not be a good idea for Lotor to see Diego. He was sort of hoping that Diego and him could sleep in, while the meeting went on and by the time they woke up, Lotor would be gone and Lance wouldn’t have to deal with the situation.

His troubles causes a restless sleep, and it doesn’t help that he can feel Diego at the corner of his consciousness, gently but impatiently tugging at him. Lance flat-out ignores them, because Diego pooped before they went to bed, they ate and they should be damn well sleeping. 

“Papa,” Diego mewls.

Lance sighs. “Go to sleep, Diego.”

There’s silence for five blessed minutes, before Diego repeats: “Papa.”

“Diego,” Lance sighs. “Not now. Papa is tired, and so are you.”

Diego clearly disagrees. “Papa.”

Lance ignores them.

“Papa.”

For God’s sake.

“Smoothie.”

“Oh my god, really?” Lance groans before it suddenly clicks.

Lance sits up so abruptly, that Diego who has been sitting and staring at him as they called out, falls back in surprise.

“What?” Lance gasps, staring at Diego. “What did you say?”

“Smoothie,” Diego carefully repeats, their voice hoarse and low and more than anything they sound like an old man that has smoked for at least 40 years, but it’s his child’s voice and Lance feels happiness blossom inside him, joy making him jump up from the bed.

“Diego, who am I?” Lance asks, pointing to himself.

Diego blinks. “Papa.”

“That’s right, I’m your Papa!” Lance squeals, grabbing Diego and lifting him while laughing. Diego shrieks in pleasant surprise, clicking as Lance bounces them up and down.

“You can get all the smoothies that you want, pequeñe,” Lance coos, placing them on the bed as he puts on his robe. Diego is pulling at their toes, warm with pride at their accomplishment. Lance’s joy infecting is infecting them, but Lance can tell that they don’t really understand what made Lance so happy in the first place.

Lance picks them up, and places them on his hip. “Are you thirsty too?”

Diego agrees, nuzzling at Lance’s shoulder, otherwise not making any new sounds, but Lance is happy. Sure, Diego woke him up because they were hungry, and their second word is ‘Smoothie’, but that doesn’t change that their first word was ‘Papa’.

Avoiding the Bridge, where the meeting is probably still being held, Lance goes to the kitchen. Hunk, bless his soul, has already made a morning smoothie and so Lance places Diego on the table and gets to work at pouring it into a bowl.

In the middle of the feeding – when Lance has disgusting meat juice all over his clothes and on his fingers and face because Diego thinks this is a fucking game – the doors to the kitchen are opened.

Lance turns around, and sees Shiro and Lotor, and...

Diego clicks in curiosity.

Lotor is carrying a child. They seem a little smaller than Diego, but instead of purple, their scales are pink. Their ears are a little longer and pointer than Diego’s and their eyes are burgundy and pink in the same way an albino rabbits are. But besides that it’s obvious that this could be Diego’s kin.

“Lance,” Shiro says. He looks impossibly more tired, but surprisingly at ease though. He must be nearing his crashing point. “Just the guy we were waiting for. I see Diego already woke you up.”

“Yeah, pequeñe was hungry,” Lance says, still staring at the child in Lotor’s arms.

Diego clicks again, and the child in Lotor’s arms twists to curiously peek at them, their ears twitching.

“What’s going on?” Lance asks.

“I believe the two of us might be able to help each other answer that question,” Lotor answers, voice surprisingly pleasant. He walks into the kitchen, and Lance can feel his hand come down on Diego’s ankle, anxiously squeezing as the Prince comes closer to them.  Diego tilts their head at their pink counterpart, not nervous at all.

“This is Ranma,” Lotor introduces the child, who – despite their obvious curiosity – is holding tightly onto him. “And you might be Diego?”

Lotor reaches out a hand, and Diego looks at it, before looking at Lance.

Lance reluctantly gives them permission, and Diego crawls forwards to sniff suspiciously at Lotor’s hand – that’s Papa’s baby right there – before grabbing it with both of their hands.

It catches Ranma’s attention and they defensively swipe at Diego’s arm.

Diego drops their arm with a hurt wail, and looks at Lance in disappointment and Lance gives them a reassuring smile.  

“Now, now,” Lotor gently chastises. “Don’t be like that, Ranma.”

Ranma looks up at him, and now Lance understands why the team thinks Diego and his silent communication is unsettling. 

Finally, Ranma seems to lose the battle of wills and they look at Lance.

Lance smiles hesitantly. “Hello there, Ranma,” he greets. “Welcome to the Castle.”

They glare at Lance.

“I bet it’s really weird with all the white and blue,” Lance continues, kneeling to get to Ranma’s eye level. “I’m sure it’s so much different from Lotor’s crib.”

Ranma clicks, blinking slowly at him.

“Can I shake your hand?” Lance asks, trying to make his voice even softer and after having looked at Lotor, Ranma slowly untangles from Lotor and reaches out both arms.

It’s pretty surprising but if Lance is reading this correctly, Ranma is okay with being lifted. Still, he moves slow and telegraphs his movements to not scare Ranma, but Ranma doesn’t seem to care much when they are lifted and put on Lance’s lap. They feel so light compared to Diego, but their scales are of a rougher texture.

“How old are they?” Lance asks, falling back into parent-mode.

“Him,” Lotor corrects. “Ranma is a boy.”

Lance lifts his brows. “How do you know?”

“He told me,” Lotor answers, and doesn’t explain further.

Lance looks down at Ranma, and smiles. “He’s beautiful,” he coos and scratches Ranma between their ears. They shiver with delight, arms stretching and Lance chuckles. “Where did you find him?” he asks.

Lotor sighs, and swipes a lock of hair away from his face. Lance has been noticing that Lotor hasn’t been keeping it combed back like he usually does. It makes the Prince look more disheveled somehow.

“As I was explaining Shiro, a few months ago a rogue operation sent a distress signal to one of my fleets. When I sent my men, most of the crew had died of internal bleedings. My men found the eggs, but all except Ranma’s had gone cold, I’m afraid.”

Lance refuses to let his surprise show. “You know what they are then?” he asks, perhaps still a little too eagerly.

This is when Diego decides to throw themselves at the bowl of smoothie with a predatory growl. Shiro gets to catch the bowl before all of it spills on the table, and Diego babbles, plunging all four hands into the smoothie and stuffing the smoothie into their mouth, before Lance hisses at them. Diego giggles at him, and only whines a little bit as Lance dries their hands with a dish towel. Lance absentmindedly gives Shiro the spoon, and Shiro looks at him in sheer surprise, until Diego wails again and Shiro gets to work at feeding them, before they’ll try to plunge into the bowl again. 

Once Shiro and Diego are set, Lance looks at Lotor who nods like nothing happened at all. “Yes. The dead bodies you found Diego with, they were part of the unit who had the pleasure of being slain by the adult Nihitas.”

“So. Ranma and Diego were kidnapped by the same unit,” Lance sighs. “Wait, why did the Galra try to kidnap them?”

“Well, that’s a question I can’t answer fore sure,” Lotor says, a little heavily. Ranma playfully starts to toy with Lance’s rope, as if sensing the dissipating tension. “The Nihitas, which are born and bred on their home planet, are rarely sighted, as they are known to be very defensive of their territory. But rumors say they’re giant creatures, walking on four legs with antlers sprouting from their backs. They’re covered in feathers, and are located on the snowy mountain side, where they live in packs, isolated from the rest of the planet.”

Lance looks at Diego, who is trying to charm Shiro into giving them the whole bowl right away by cooing adoringly at him. 

“However, the few cases where hatching and raising a Nihita outside their natural environment has succeeded, they have been known to be so much more,” Lotor continues. “They’re very intelligent creatures, but equally as hard to nurture and raise. Perhaps the rogue unit wanted to sell them, as the shells themselves are worth a lot. Or perhaps they were getting the eggs for someone else. I know Haggar is curious, and has purchased the remains she could find so far.” 

Lance looks down at Ranma. He seem content to be on Lance’s lap, despite their initial discomfort at leaving Lotor.

“Is that why you kept him?” Lance asks, keeping his voice level. “As an ace in the hole?”

Lotor narrows his eyes. “What are you implying?”

“I just don’t see why the new emperor of the Galra Empire is interested in becoming a Dad,” Lance calmly replies. 

Lotor gets that pinched, annoyed look in his face, the same face he gets when Allura and Shiro are doubting him. “I did not know of the Nihitas, until I already had Ranma in my possession.”

“So why didn’t you give him back to his parents?” Lance asks. “If you found out where he comes from?”

“Because the Nihitas would reject him,” Lotor sharply says, and Diego wails, quickly running to hide behind Shiro, but Ranma doesn’t as much as flinch. 

“You’re scaring the kids,” Shiro tells Lotor.

Only now does Lance notice that Ranma is indeed shivering, but before he can do anything about it, Lotor has reached out his hands for his kid and Ranma immediately jumps into them, tucking himself against Lotor’s stomach as Lotor pulls Ranma closer with an oddly guarded look on his face. 

“Once the infant has fed off foreign foods, their genetic code starts to change to accommodate it,” Lotor continues “It makes the fully-grown Nihitas unable to raise their children, and so they are abandoned. What is your reason?”

“I didn’t even know what Diego was for a long time,” Lance admits. “We were in the process of finding out.”

That’s not completely true, but fuck if Lotor has to know.

“Look, it seems like the two of you might be more stuck in these roles than you thought at first,” Shiro diplomately concludes, though Lance is sure he’s mostly talking to Lotor. “Actually, Lance, Lotor just said he has been experiencing problems trying to feed Ranma.”

“Sure,” Lance says, standing up and getting two vials. He throws one to Lotor, who grabs it without freezing. “Take as many as you want, but right now I’m deadbeat so can we wait to talk about the rest for later? I’m going to feed Diego in our room, they really have to go to sleep now.”

Diego wails in protest, but even Lance can tell that they’re about to crash. 

“I expect you at lunch,” Shiro tells him. Lance waves at them, picking his very dirty baby up, and just as he leaves, he hears Shiro offer Lotor a room in the Castle. Seems like Lotor might be staying for longer than anticipated. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: How Could I Forget? [Queenqcrown](https://queenwcrown.tumblr.com/) made fanart of[ Diego!](https://queenwcrown.tumblr.com/post/171712737336/does-he-look-like-this-moonrose001).
> 
> EDIT EDIT: Also, I have a [tumblr](http://moonrose001.tumblr.com/) if any of you want to chat I guess?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my baby boy's back is hurting so here's an early update!

Diego keeps avoiding the bottle, as if knowing that the bottom of the bottle entails sleep. They fool around, covering Lance’s eyes, pulling his hair, and one single time, kicking Lance in the chin.

 

On top of that, the sucker falls asleep before finishing the bottle, and Lance comes to terms with the fact that he’ll be woken up because Diego’s hungry. And while Diego snores into Lance’s ear, Lance thinks about the information he’s been presented with. He’s relieved to know that he can keep Diego with a good conscience and that Diego on top of that doesn’t have to grow up all alone.

He wakes up before noon, and goes to shower, leaving the door open so Diego won’t panic if they wake up. True enough, halfway into the shower Lance can hear a whine, and he steps out of the shower to quickly grab them from the bed before they throw a fit.

He places Diego on the floor of the shower cubicle, before turning on the water again, and Diego clicks in contentment, two hands holding Lance around the ankles, the others trying to catch the droplets and smashing them against their face.

Lance laughs, and after having combed hair treatment into his hair, he sits down in front Diego. Diego climbs into Lance’s lap, and Lance sings an old children song, tapping Diego’s head, shoulders, knees and toes as he does. Curiously Diego listens, and after a minute they try to do the same, but they can’t quite get the rhythm right. When Diego gets tired of trying, Lance tickles them and they squeal as they roll backwards, trying to get away from Lance. Grinning like a maniac, Lance continues his ministrations.

“Say papa,” Lance demands. “Papa.”

Diego can’t even talk because they’re laughing so much, and Lance can’t help but giggle.

They’re interrupted by a knock on the door, and thinking it’s either Keith, Hunk or Shiro Lance shouts: “Come in!”

What he doesn’t expect is Lotor standing at the door, holding an upset-looking Ranma on his hip. “He won’t eat it.”

Lance, who’s still shocked at Lotor standing in his bathroom while Lance is completely nude, only Diego covering his dignity, stares blankly at him and Diego’s laughter finally settles down. “Eat what?”

“The smoothie,” Lotor impatiently answers and Ranma starts whining on his hip at the prospect. “He says his stomach hurts.”

“Well, when did he poop last?” Lance asks.

Lotor pauses. “Two days ago.”

“What consistency did it have?”

“What does it matter?”

“Just answer the question,” Lance says, a little annoyed as he rolls his eyes.

“It was very hard,” Lotor replies.

“Well, there you have it. Can you wait in my room, while I finish?”

Lotor nods and closes the door. Lance takes the showerhead and washes out the treatment in his hair, quickly wiping down his and Diego’s bodies, before exiting the bathroom.

“Don’t look,” Lance says, and Lotor politely looks away as Lance quickly puts some underwear on. “What does Ranma usually eat?”

“A shake I made him full of the necessary nutrients and protein according to his genetic makeup,” Lotor replies. Lance quickly puts on his shirt and pants, before grabbing the oil and Diego.

Diego wails in protest, hating the oil more than they hate being wiped down, but they put up with Lance lathering their body with a thick coat of it.

Ranma is sniffing curiously, and Lance hands Lotor the oil.

“What is it?” Lotor asks.

“For the scales. I don’t know about your ship, but here Diego’s scales will dry out without it.”

Lotor eyes the oil in his hand, before giving Ranma the same treatment. Ranma is much more patient than Diego, and Lance notices how carefully gentle Lotor is being, and he guesses that he ought to respect that.

\----

“I don’t think Ranma is ready to eat solid foods,” Lance tells Lotor when they leave his room. “He’s smaller than Diego, so I assume he’s younger?”

“Merely a month, maybe two,” Lotor answers, eyes serious even as Ranma starts to grope at his ear, chirping and of course Diego starts copycatting the gesture.

Lance hums, and is about to answer, when Diego puts their hand into his mouth. Diego squeals with laughter at Lance’s expression, and Lance nips playfully before pulling it out.

“Why do they do that?” Lotor asks.

“Do what?” Lance asks.

“Do weird things like sticking their hand into your mouth?” Lotor says. “Ranma does it for exploratory reasons.”

Lance tilts his head, looking at Diego who’s still laughing their ass out, and Ranma who calmly surveys at the scene. “Diego is playing,” Lance clarifies. “Testing limits, having fun. On Earth, playing is the way children learn to understand the world.”

Lotor tilts his head in quiet consideration.

Lance wonders how the Galra teaches their children to understand the world, but elects not to ask. The answer is probably pretty grim.

They reach the kitchen. The scent of food is present, but faded so Hunk must’ve just finished preparing lunch. Lance places Diego on the counter, and goes to the fridge. Five vials of smoothie are there, but one of them is half-empty.

Lance pushes the vials aside to find the blood, and pulling two out, he turns around to see Diego tryingly chirping at Ranma, who is starting to look a little drowsy.

Lance grabs the vials and looks at them. As any person who had had any sort of chemistry class, he has written dates on them, and he realizes that these are about five days old. He must’ve used up the new ones up instead of the old ones. Pidge had expressed worry that the blood might become deoxygenated, and that might affect whether Diego could still drink it.

He takes two pipettes, and Diego is already eagerly waiting. He drips a few drops on their tongue, and they grab the rest of the pipette squirting messily into their mouth, getting blood everywhere. Lance smiles, and turns to Ranma, who is curiously sniffing the air. He opens his mouth and Lance drips the cool liquid on their tongue.

But then he turns away, whining.

“He says he doesn’t like it,” Lotor says, a subtle note of frustration in his voice.

“Huh,” Lance says, and scratches his head. “Okay, let’s try something else.”

He goes to the cabinet, and grabs a syringe. Diego chirps encouragingly at Lotor until Lotor willingly feeds them the rest of the blood, and Lance sterilizes his arm and the needle, before plunging it into his vein. The skin is getting a little rough with all the track marks, but Lance thinks he has a few doses left before he’ll have to switch arms.

“ _What are you doing_?”

Lance startles, hand holding the syringe shaking painfully in his arm before he stills. “Don’t startle me like that,” he snaps. “Can’t you see I’m doing something delicate?”

Lotor’s narrowed eyes stay sharp, but he steps back. Eventually Lance pulls out the needle, and he covers the bleeding with some cotton, and tapes it to his arm before taking off the needle of the syringe and replacing it with a pipette.

“All of that blood is yours?” Lotor asks.

Lance shrugs a shoulder. “It was the only thing that worked at the time.” He holds the pipette towards Ranma, and gives Ranma time to sniff the fresh blood, before asking him to open his mouth.

Ranma hesitantly does, and Lance drips the blood into his mouth.

“Oh,” Lotor says, pleasantly surprised. “He’s becoming all warm.”

Lotor doesn’t really have to say that. Ranma eagerly crawls forward and grabs for the pipette, briefly choking as he squirts all the blood into his mouth. Diego laughs at him, and Lance scratches Ranma’s head, giving the pipette to Lotor.

Lotor scoops Ranma up, and once Lance is sure Ranma is accepting the blood, Lance gets the other pipettes with the older blood.

Diego chugs it down with no problem, and Lance assumes it’s because their stomach isn’t as sensitive as Ranma’s, either because of age or because this has always been their diet.

“How long have you been doing that?” Lotor asks, when he’s finished feeding his kid and Ranma is fast asleep in his arms.

“Doing what?” Lance asks, bouncing Diego in his lap.

“Feeding them with your own blood?”

“The beginning,” Lance tells him. “It was the only thing Diego wanted to eat, though they’re willing to try other things now.”

Lotor looks at Diego, who’s giggling as they throw their body back, hanging midair and only their grip on Lance’s thumps holding them up.

Lance idly plays with them for a few minutes, using them as an excuse not to initiate a conversation. Now that the parenting part is over, he doesn’t really know what to say. He doesn’t know why Lotor is visiting the Castle, so he can’t talk to him about work, and Allura always knew Lotor better as a person.

Diego squeals as their body tips over the edge for the fourteenth time, when Lotor clears his throat and says: “You’re good at this.”

Lance looks up at him, meeting Lotor’s – probably unintentionally intense – eyes before quickly looking down. While Shiro’s praise made Lance feel proud, Lotor’s makes Lance’s cheeks flush. He looks down at Diego, who is floating in the air at the moment, their head hang upside down. Lance pulls them up. “You’re not too bad yourself,” he acknowledges.

The corner of Lotor’s mouth turns slightly upwards. “I feel like I’m fumbling most of the time.”

Lance smiles, trailing his hand down Diego’s scaly head. “I think that’s how every parent feels most of the time.”

Lotor looks down at Ranma in his arms. “None of my men understand.”

Lance remembers the team’s reaction at first, and sighs. “Maybe not now, and maybe not ever. It’s a very hard thing to understand when you’re an outsider.”

Lotor brushes his hair back over his ear, and Lance can’t help put notice the grace of gesture a little too much.

The doors slide open in front of them, and a very concerned Shiro steps into the kitchen.

“There you are,” Shiro says, briefly smiling at them before his eyes fall down to Diego. His smile turns gentle as he peers down at them, and Diego chirps warily at him, but puts up with the hand that comes down to stroke their head. Because Shiro is Shiro though, of course Diego likes him right away and leans into Shiro’s hand.

“What did the two of you figure out?” Shiro asks, and slowly picks Diego up. Diego hangs there for a moment, until Shiro pulls them in to his chest and Diego claps their hands around his arms. When they hear the noise of their claws hitting metal, they hit Shiro’s arm again.

“Oh well, you know,” Lance nervously says, because Shiro is not going to like this.

Diego keeps hitting their hands on Shiro’s arms, clicking excitedly at the clanging noise.

Shiro narrows his eyes.

Lotor looks from Shiro to Lance, and Shiro’s eyes fall on the syringe on the kitchen table.

“Oh,” Shiro says.

“Yeah, but I mean, we see whether Lotor can feed him himself, right Lotor?” Lance asks.

“Of course,” Lotor replies.

“I – “ Shiro starts and Diego puts their hand into his mouth, squealing with laughter. Shiro’s eyes crinkle in amusement and he pulls Diego away from him, lifting him in the air. Lance thanks his lucky stars for how cute and distracting Diego could be.

Diego keeps laughing as Shiro throws them in the air, and course Shiro is good with children.

“Anyways, Lance, you still need to go train. Keith should still be there, and you two can spar, before moving on to target practice.”

“Will you take care of Diego?”

“Me and Coran, don’t worry.”

“Okay, remember to let them into the bathroom in about an hour,” Lance says. “They’re not going to want to pee, but just wait them out. They should be hungry for some smoothie right after, and a bottle again. After that, they might want to nap but don’t let them sleep for too long, at most 45 minutes because they’re not going to fall asleep at night , and – “

Shiro listens carefully, and nods very seriously at the end of it. Diego is starting to sense that they’re being separated, and starts whining, moving restlessly in Shiro’s arms.

“Baby, papa’s gonna go train with Uncle Keith,” Lance tells them, and picks Diego up from Shiro’s arms. Diego clicks worriedly, but Lance slathers them with kisses, while explaining how great of a time they would be having with Coran.

“Now, can you kiss Papa goodbye?” Lance asks.

Pouting, Diego grabs Lance’s face and presses their face into his, before being carried away with Shiro. Lance keeps up the reassuring smile until Diego is out of sight, before rubbing his eyes. Great. He was going to have to deal with Keith now.

He feels a hand on his shoulder, and turns. Lotor is hesitantly smiling. “Thank you, Blue Paladin. It means a lot that you’re willing to help me to this extent.”

“Uh,” Lance stutters, because is it just him or is Lotor actually sorta _attractive_?

“I’m forever in your debt,” Lotor says, and there’s something weird in his smile, that Lance would later think a lot about.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by the wonderful alliaskofyou  
> Sorry for the big delay, and thank u for the patience ^^

A few days later, they’ve concluded that Lotor’s blood isn’t enough, simply because his plasma-levels are too low. And since Diego is drinking more smoothie than blood nowadays, Lance gives Lotor a week’s ration of their ration.

It’s not enough, but it’s also not realistic to drain him anymore than that. Lotor gives him that meaningful look as Coran hooks him up to an IV, and briefly squeezes Lance’s shoulder before leaving.

Time passes evenly after that. The team warms up to Diego, and, with all the social interaction, Diego becomes better at socializing and reading the social cues. They don’t talk again, but they regulate their cooing, clicking and wailing in a way that’s understandable to the team, seeing that Diego uses them distinctly.

Diego becomes bigger, and Lance tries to teach them how to walk. Hunk holds their hands, keeping them on their feet and Lance kneels a few feet away, holding out his arms and encouraging Diego to take the steps.

Diego keeps going down on their knees to crawl, but, after practicing for a few days, Lance witnesses them stumbling towards him. Once Diego falls into his arms, Lance picks them up and throws them in the air a few times.

“You’re so good,” Lance praises. “My little baby can walk. Can you walk, Diego?”

Diego puffs up in pride and points towards themselves.

“That’s right.” Lance grins, pressing kisses all over Diego’s face.

“At this rate, you will reward them for finishing their plate.” Allura sighs.

Lance sticks out his tongue at her, and Diego copies his gesture. Allura rolls her eyes, and Diego giggles.

So far everything had been going well. Lance sends out his blood every week to Lotor. Voltron has fought several battles and Diego no longer screams when Lance puts on his uniform. Plus, Lance caught Keith rubbing Diego’s head once and Diego wouldn’t shut up about it for days.

The team takes turns looking after Diego now, so Lance can train and take the occasional long shower. But it’s not long before that isn’t enough. Diego is bored, has had enough of exploring the same corners of the Castle and Lance realizes that Diego hasn’t ever been outside.

Which means that Lance and Diego follow Shiro around for a week, nagging Shiro for a vacation. Diego doesn’t really understand what Lance’s doing, but they imitate the obnoxious pitch Lance’s voice reaches when he has been complaining for a good 20 minutes really well. Lance couldn’t be prouder.

Finally, Shiro arranges to land on Olkarion, where they would be holding an Official™ negotiation treaty with Lotor. The planet is warm and dry, mostly composed of desert with streaks of a colorful tundra and the forest some of the Olkari still lives in. They land the Castle outside the city, and, while Allura and Shiro discuss what’s going to happen, Lance puts on his armor and for the first time, lets Diego see the outside. At first, they’re scared, flinching at the breeze and squinting in the sun, like the sensations are too much for them. But after some minutes of adjusting, their curiosity comes through and it’s not long before they’re twisting restlessly in Lance’s arms, trying to get down. As soon as they have been put down, they raise their arms high, and screaming for dear life, they run through the fields of vegetation, euphoria making them high-spirited.

Lance smiles, following behind them a little slower. Lotor should be here in an hour or so, and in that time, Lance intends to enjoy it as much as possible.

“Your kid is gonna fall into a hole.” Keith comments petulantly, because he’s not ready to admit that he is in fact watching over Diego.

“Good you’re here to keep an eye on them, then.” Lance good-naturedly replies.

“I’m not – Diego! Get that away from your mouth!” Keith shouts, and Diego, of course, quickly turns their back on Keith so they can stuff the red flower in their mouth. Lance would be worried, but he knows that Keith is as quick as lightning and has already pulled the red flower out of Diego’s hand before they get to eat it.

Diego starts wailing in clearly exaggerated agony, and Keith pouts but hesitantly pats their head. They’re so surprised about the caress that they stop wailing, but of course only for a moment before Diego points at Keith accusingly and looking expectantly at Lance, who shrugs. When Diego realizes Lance isn’t going to do them justice anytime soon, they turn around and babble heatedly at Keith.

Lance sits down on the grass, and smiles at the scene of Keith and Diego arguing.

He’s just started feeling his face heat up with the sun, when Diego runs back to him, quickly mounting Lance’s back, continuously pointing at Keith.

“Keith’s right, pequeñe,” Lance smiles, holding their hand around his neck.

Pouting, Diego climbs down again, and sets to explore the area, Keith stalking them closely. Lance leans his face up towards the suns, the heat a welcome prickling sensation on his skin after all the months locked inside the Castle. It’s not long before the rest of the team joins them, and Pidge sets to chase Diego around, their small legs barely keeping up with them as they scream in joy, the plants tugging at their feet and legs.

Lance wishes he could freeze the scene like this. Diego, playing out in the sun, indulged by their uncles and aunt, played with by their cousin.

It’s not long before he sees Lotor’s ship though, but it doesn’t make him feel anxious in the same way it did before. After having seen how much Lotor cared for his son – and after all the small gifts Lotor had sent in return for the blood – Lance had a hard time feeling like the guy would stab them in the back anytime.

By the time Lance and Diego has reached the ship, Ranma is already outside, sniffing curiously at a flower. Lotor is watching them carefully, holding a bag of the essentials probably. As soon as Lotor notices them, Ranma looks up as well and Diego squeals, running for them.

“Diego!” Lance calls out, but Ranma isn’t scared. They run towards Diego as well, their short legs wobbly on the uneven ground and then the two throw themselves into each other’s arms, rolling around on the ground laughing in a mess of bright pink and purple.

“Hello, Lotor.” Lance calmly greets as the two hug it out. “How have you been?”

“Well.” Lotor pleasantly replies. “I don’t think I can thank you enough for what you’ve done for us. He’s grown so much and has become so strong.”

Lance looks at Ranma, and surely enough, he seems much more energetic and, judging from the way he’s able to fight with Diego without getting stepped up, must mean he has gotten stronger.

“Now, now.” Lotor calls, a little louder, and Lance doesn’t know what it says about the difference in their parenting skills that Ranma stops and straightens right away.

Only now does Ranma seem to notice that Lance is there, and, to Lance’s surprise, Ranma walks over to Lance and lifts all four of his arms in a signal to be lifted. Lance picks him up, and Ranma hugs him tight for a moment, before looking back at Lotor, like he’s making a point.

Diego coos and covers their eyes with their hands, loudly making a babble that sounds like someone counting. They finish at ten, and uncover their eyes only to see Ranma looking curiously at them. They huff in frustration and make some wild hand gestures, pointing at the field around them.

Ranma blinks, clearly not understanding, and Diego starts counting again, only to find Ranma staring at them in confusion when they’re done again.

“Here, let me try.” Lance suggests, covering his eyes and counting. He can hear Diego click as they drag Ranma away, and, after having reached ten, Lance uncovers his eyes and starts chasing them. Diego screams in excitement, even if Lance is obviously slowing down so the chase can last for a minute or two. They flail around for a while, Lotor watching with amusement, before Lance catches Diego and Ranma, making loud growling noises as he rolls them unto their stomachs. Diego laughs and Ranma is giggling, and the game repeats itself for a couple of times, but Ranma has still failed to understand the concept, looking forwards to being caught and rolled around and growled at, and therefore not running away in the first place, instead opting to look at Lance in excitement as he counts down.

Finally, Lance just pretends he can’t see Ranma, shadowing his eyes with his hand as he loudly calls for Ranma. Ranma, of course, thinks that Lance can’t see him and lets himself be ignored for a while, until he growls and attacks Lance’s leg. Lance pretends he has received a fatal hit, and yells, falls down and lets Ranma crawl on top of him, growling like a tiger. It’s not long before Diego understands what’s going on and joins Ranma in on the attack.

“They really like each other.” Lotor notices when Lance has managed to sit up, each of them sitting on each of his thighs.

“Yeah,” Lance agrees.

Lotor nods and sits down besides Lance. They’re silent for a long minute, a concerned frown on his face. “Is there anything you need, Blue Paladin?”

Lance looks up. “What do you mean?” he asks.

Lotor looks at him, pondering. “Well, we can start off with your health. Are your blood levels stable?” he asks. “You look a little pale.”

“Yeah, they are,” Lance says, even though he has been feeling a little faint lately.

Lotor thinks about this for a hot minute, before he looks at Lance’s purple child. “And Diego?”

Lance looks thoughtfully at Diego, because that’s something else. “They need a playmate.” Lance slowly says. “The team and I are doing our best, but I think they would benefit from playing with someone their own age. Also, perhaps, a bed? They’re becoming too big to sleep on mine. Toys, I guess. Coran can 3D print pretty much anything, but I think we all just lack the imagination to make anything interesting.”

Lotor nods once. “Perhaps, some vitamin supplements?”

“You don’t know my biology that well.” Lance says. “And I frankly don’t trust any of your people to do it. Nah, Coran is working on it.”

“So there is an issue?” Lotor asks, an unsaid  _ ‘Aha!’  _ hanging in the air.

“I’m a human in space, Lotor, there’s always an issue,” Lance replies, waving him off.

It’s not long before that that Shiro comes to collect them.

\----

That evening, when Diego has gone to bed, Lance puts on his armor again. The meeting with Lotor and the Olkari had dragged out horribly, and Lance had opted out, needing to feed Diego and Ranma and then tuck them in. Lance was supposed to go hunt with Keith, but, because Keith at some point had become the Marmorans representative, Lance is still alone.

But Lance has to go and find food for Diego. Food had been running low, and Lance doesn’t know when they get to land on a planet again with so much vegetation and animals.

He tells Coran that he’s going out to hunt, and, even though Coran doesn’t like him going out there alone, Lance promises not to stray far. Besides, the armor protects him from most dangers and it has a communicator.

Coran reluctantly lets him go, and Lance turns on the thermographic goggles as he enters the forest. His strategy for the hunt is better this time; he would shoot small, harmless needles at potential animals, and the needles would from a simple tissue- and blood test estimate whether Diego would be able to eat it. This way he doesn’t have to kill as many different animals as the last time.

The forest is loud and suspicious around him, but Lance’s heartbeat is calm and steady as he sneaks in on a group of deer-like creatures. He shoots a single needle at one of them, but the sound scares off the herd. The data that comes back shows the meat would be incompatible with Diego (and soon to be Ranma’s) physiology anyway.

Lance sighs and prepares himself for a long night. Coran checks in with him regularly and reports back on Diego and Ranma’s sleep. It’s reassuring but annoying as hell. Some sort of silver monkey turns out to be compatible, but the fuckers are too slick for Lance to shoot.

This is taking too long.

Lance wanders further into the forest, keeping an eye on the heat signatures. He’s getting tired and a little agitated and ignores Coran third call of the night.

The birds (at least he hopes it’s birds) are screaming in the trees, and Lance is considering trying to shoot one of them, when the ground underneath him abruptly starts to slip. He twists in a jump, but even as he lands a good step away from where he was, the ground there slips as well and Lance suddenly finds himself crashing down a rocky hill. His armor takes the blunt of it, but he loses his bayard along the way. He feels like he has been rolling forever, when he feels the ground disappear underneath him and he falls.

\-----

He wakes up rather abruptly when he hears a loud noise. He startles and tries to sit up, but his knee screams in agony and he falls down.

His helmet’s visor is too dirty for him to see anything properly, and he reaches up to quickly rub the terracotta-colored dirt off. There’s nothing there, except bushes and trees. The birds are still loud and the sky is still dark.

_ Papa. _

Fuck. Lance closes his eyes.

_ Pequeñe. _

Eager desperation fills his head.

_ Papa! _

The need is clear. Why is Lance not there? Where is he? Why hasn’t he replied to Diego?

Lance takes a deep breath, and taps the distress call on his right wrist.

_ I’ll be coming soon, baby. _

_ No, Papa, come now! _

The anger and upset rings loudly in Lance’s head, but he’s too tired to hold on to it.

\----

He wakes up because someone is moving him. He sluggishly opens his eyes, and sees that it’s dusk. The sky is scarlet red, and several Olkari are standing around him. He blinks sluggishly, becoming aware at a heartbroken tug in his mind.

As soon as he opens his mind to it, it pours in like a flood, wordless fear and agony. He tries to reassure it, but it’s relentless.

Someone moves his knees and the pain makes him cry out. A robotic hand Lance recognizes as Shiro’s holds his shoulder down as he tries to crawl away from the Olkari nudging a carrier underneath his body.

The pain passes and Lance falls down again, breathing quickly.

The carrier gets underneath his body, and with relief he feels himself be lifted up.

“Shiro?” he asks.

“Hey there, Lance,” Shiro measuredly answers. “That was a nasty fall, huh?”

The tone indicates that Lance is due for a scolding. “Diego?”

“With Ranma and Lotor.” Shiro replies. “Just relax. You’re going straight to the healing pod.”

Lance nods. “Can I see Diego first? They’re worried.”

“Sure, but you can’t move.”

They fly to the Castle, Lance slipping in and out of consciousness. But as he gets closer, he can feel Diego’s intent grow, so it doesn’t surprise him that Lotor and Coran are waiting for them at the entrance.

What does surprise him is the tears. He takes one look at Diego’s face and realizes that if things had gone a little differently, all of this might’ve been over. He would’ve last seen Diego sleeping on his bed, feeling safe. Sure that Lance would be coming home. And what if Lance hadn’t? What if the drop had been so bad, that even with the armor on, he would’ve broken his neck?

He can’t just go off like that, alone. He’s a parent now. Someone is depending on him to be the strong one.

And yet here he lies, feeling more weak and vulnerable than ever. He couldn’t even hunt, without getting hurt.

Diego mewls, twisting in Coran’s arms.

“No, Diego.” Coran forbids. “Papa is badly hurt.”

The rims around Diego’s huge green-blue eyes have a sickly grey color, and they cry out.

“Take my helmet off.” Lance says.

“I’m going to unlock the visor.” Shiro says instead, and when he does, the cool, copper-sweet smell of the Castle washes in on him. He blinks in a daze, looking up at Diego.

“Pequeñe,” he tries to say, but his voice breaks. “My little baby. It’s okay.”

Diego shakes, before starting to cry. When Coran tries to carry them away, they start to scream and Lance can’t bear to hear it. He reaches out his arms, and whispers, feeling feeble, but that’s apparently the last encouragement Diego needs to make a jump.

They fall unto the ground, but before Lance can even react, they’ve jumped up onto the carrier and into his arms. They’re too hot in his arms, shaking in distress.

Lance closes his eyes, feeling Diego’s face press into his covered neck.

“It’s okay,” Lance whispers again. “Don’t be scared. Papa isn’t. I’m going to stay, pequeñe. Nothing matters like you.”

He closes his eyes, feeling Diego slowly settle down. The sobbing turns into gasps and then rhythmic hiccups.

He thinks he does hear Diego start to scream as they’re pulled off Lance, but then the endless cold of the healing pod comes and the screaming fades.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! Sorry for the long wait. For those of you who follow my tumblr, you know my computer has been down, ive had exams, and i wanted to finish Rebound. But here's an update. Sorry for the long wait!

The world comes back in drops. Drops of reality that fall into his eyes and bleed unconsciousness away.

_ Come back to me. _

The gentle hum of the pods.

_ Please. _

The feeling of frosty mists encasing his body.

_ I need you. _

He’s breathing in the cool mists. They’re inside him. He never noticed how gentle they were until now.

_ Papa. _

He opens his eyes.

The doors slide open, and he stumbles out. His knees are still aching, which is weird, and also the team isn’t there.

He crooks his head, and only now thinks to look down.

Diego is sitting on the floor, holding their stomach like it hurts. They’re looking warily at him, like they’re afraid he’s going to get mad.

“Papa,” Diego hoarsely whispers.

Lance kneels down and holds out his arms silently. He doesn’t know what Diego has done, but he doesn’t have the energy to reprimand them right now. He just wants to rest.

They walk over to Lance, and with a suppressed sound of pain he picks them up. They wrap their arms around his neck, and press their damp face into his chest. He sighs, and puts a protective hand on the back of their head, and slides it down.

And then he can feel the bumps. Blinking, he looks down at Diego’s spine, and sees the beginning of three bumps on their spine. They’re crystal clear and rounded.

“Let’s go to bed,” Lance says, and he stands up and with pain in his knees, he walks back to his room.

\----

He wakes up because someone is opening the door. Diego who has sprawled during their sleep, and has taken up at least 70% of the bed, doesn’t as much as twitch. Two of their hands are holding Lance’s shirt, and he naturally glares at the person who has come to disturb their rest.

It’s Lotor and Ranma. Lotor looks a little disheveled, but Ranma is already leaning in towards Lance and Diego with an eager expression on his face.

“You shouldn’t have left the pod, Blue Paladin,” Lotor says with a sigh.

“Is that so?” Lance asks, tired and grumpy because he is getting disturbed. For good reasons? Sure. But he has already decided that he doesn’t want to do anything of any sort except for staying on this bed, and that’s just how it is and how it is going to continue to be. 

“Yes,” Lotor says, slowly lifting an eyebrow and looking very much not impressed. 

“And what are you going to do about it, huh?” Lance drawls.

Lotor opens his mouth.

“Gonna call Shiro and tell on me?” Lance asks, making sure to make his voice as obnoxious as possible. “Tell the Princess?”

“You’re acting very childish,” Lotor points out.

“Well, enough people are telling me what to do as it is,” Lance sulks. “I don’t need you to be another one of them.” 

The affronted expression fades from Lotor’s face, and an expression of understanding spreads on his face. He sighs and Ranma lunges. Lotor catches him, but feels compelled enough to go sit on the side of Lance’s bed. 

Diego twitches and writhes in their sleep. Ranma crawls over to their side, and sniffs at their face. Diego blearily opens their eyes, and stretches out their two other arms towards him, and Ranmar curls into their side and nudges his face into Diego’s armpit. 

“Do they?” Lotor asks. 

“What?”

“Tell you what to do?”

Lance blinks sleepy at him. “I’m not exactly at the top of the food chain here, am I?”

“I guess,” Lotor says and blinks like he’s confused of what’s expected of him. He clears his throat.

If Lance hadn’t been so tired, he probably would’ve felt as awkward as Lotor is feeling right now.

“You don’t have to stay,” Lance yawns. “I’ll watch them.”

Lotor sighs. “That wouldn’t be fair, would it? Somebody should be watching you right now, after all.”

“Probably,” Lance whispers, closing his eyes. 

“Rest then,” Lotor says. “I’ll cover for you.”

“Thanks,” Lance mumbles and falls asleep.

\----

He wakes up because Diego is hungry. He looks at his kid, who’s rubbing their face into Lance’s cheek. But the door to the bathroom is open, and the water is running and Lance gets worried enough to pick Diego up and go the bathroom. Every step hurts, his knees seeming to be grinding against one another in sharp twinges of pain. 

There he finds Ranma relieving himself, and Lance smiles before turning on the shower. He could really need the bath, and hopefully it would dull the pain a little bit. Diego is chirping excitedly at Ranma as they switch places, and Lance rushes them a little when they take too much time getting finished, busy with talking to one another. 

He gets them into the shower where he wipes both of them down but halfway into soaping Ranma in, Diego whines and Lance hands them the soap. They giggle as they cover Ranma in foam, and it’s not long before they’re playing with the foam. Lance is sitting on the shower’s stool for once, watching them as he massages his face with an oil and uses a mild foam to get it off. He knows better than to go hard on his skin after having been in the cryopod.

“Lance?” Lotor calls out, knocking on the door. “The others are looking for you.”

“I’ll be right there,” Lance says and stands up. “The shower is over, you two.”

They hurry out, and go to the cabinet to find a towel. But Diego wants a particular one, of course, and that particular one is buried in the back of the cabinet, and so the damp floor of the bathroom is eventually covered with towels. Lance looks at them overbearingly as they fight over who gets to have the towel, and bows down to pick a towel up for himself.

His knees don’t agree with the movement, and he hears himself crying out as he deliberately falls down to relieve the pressure. Diego and Ranma immediately stop fighting, and Diego starts holding their stomach as they whine.

Lotor opens the door, and kind of apathetically Lance looks up at him, waiting for the “I told you so”. But it doesn’t come. Lotor only sighs as Lance makes himself sit up, and bows down to scoop up the children, before leaving the bathroom. Lance wraps the towel around himself, and from the bedroom, Lotor calls out, “Don’t try to stand up again, I’ll be there in a tick.”

Lance only sighs, and rubs his eyes. He would definitely have to go into the cryopod again.

It really doesn’t take more than a minute before Lotor is there. “I’m going to lift you,” he warns, before putting his hands underneath Lance’s armpits. “Tell me if it hurts.”

“Okay,” Lance agrees and Lotor pulls him up annoyingly easy. Once Lance is sort of dangling there, Lotor settles Lance on his feet but makes sure not to rest too much of Lance’s own weight on the floor. 

“Would you like to get dressed while I call Coran?” Lotor asks, making sure to not let it sound like calling Coran is a choice, but also stating the question like Lance has something to say.

“Sure,” Lance sullenly agrees, and Lotor takes the children and leaves the room. It’s not long before the door is opened again though, and this time it’s Keith.

“I knew it,” Keith says. “Why are you not in the pod?”

“Here we go,” Lance groans, rolling his eyes.

\----

Lance gets to eat breakfast with his kid, before Coran bullies him back into the pod. Diego clearly knows what’s up before it’s happening, and starts to whine, holding their stomach again. Lance comforts them, trying to explain why what’s going to happen needs to happen, but Diego won’t have it, throwing themselves into a full-blown tantrum and Lance gives up on them.

Ranma suddenly chirps, and Diego quiets for a second, looking at him. Ranma purrs and Diego tugs at their own ear before looking back at Lance.

“Papa,” Diego whines.

“It’ll only be a few hours,” Lance says, resisting the urge to pick them up again. “Play with Ranma and show everyone the rad horns you’re growing, yeah?”

“Papa,” Diego confirms, and hesitantly walks back to Ranma.

And Lance steps back into the cold.

\-----

“I don’t see how that matters,” Lotor’s slightly affronted voice protests. “If the first thing he does is going to get food anyway, why not just bring it here?”

“Sure, Lotor.” Lance can hear that Pidge is grinning in that knowing way.

Lotor snorts, and the doors to the healing pod slides open, Lance falling out. This time he lands on his feet, a little dizzy but otherwise with no pain.

“How are your knees?” Lotor asks, picking Lance up by the elbow and securing him on his feet.

“Fine,” Lance says, stretching and yawning. “Where’s Diego?”

“Napping with Ranma in Hunk’s workshop,” Pidge replies.

“Oh, is that food?” Lance breaks out, realizing there’s a tray with a bowl of Olkari food on it. He jumps onto the table and digs in. “Anything new?” he asks, looking at Lotor and Pidge.

Pidge shrugs. “Keith has left for a mission.”

“The Olkari are arranging a feast tonight,” Lotor dutifully mentions. 

Lance almost chokes and then swallows his food. “Really? I thought the Olkari never partied?”

Pidge rolls their eyes, but Lotor smiles.

“Well, when is it?” Lance asks.

“In two hours?”

Lance straightens. “Diego will have woken up from their nap by then.” Hopefully he looks at Lotor. “And Ranma too.”

“I guess so,” Lotor agrees.

“That means we  _ have _ to go,” Lance says, excitedly tipping back and forth on his feet. 

“Sure,” Lotor says.

“I thought you just said you didn’t want to go?” Pidge asks, blinking innocently at Lotor.

“An hour won’t hurt,” Lotor says, looking at Pidge like they slighted him, which just means he was really becoming part of the team. 

“Great! We can all go,” Lance says. “I have to get myself ready! Will there be music?”

\----

There is music, but not a lot of moving. Lance is sitting besides Lotor, Diego in his lap and Ranma in Lotor’s. Lance doesn’t know how Lotor ended up sitting besides him, but it’s alright, really.

“I’m bored,” Hunk yawns. “I’m going to dance.”

Pidge looks around. “I don’t think dancing is really apart of their culture.”

Lance grins. “Well, let’s make it.”

He hands Diego to Pidge and gets up at the same time as Hunk. At first the Olkari look at them like they’re weirdoes, but after a while the Olkari appears a little amused and Diego jumps onto the floor, dancing out of rhythm. Lance chuckles and picks them up, swinging them around as he stomps the ground with Hunk. 

Diego finds what Hunk is doing more interesting and Lance hands them to him, and suddenly he’s holding Ranma who is squealing with delight. Lance grins, feeling sweat rolling down his forehead and he’s so happy, coming alive with the music and dance like he has always done. For a endless moment, he’s back home, dancing on the beach with people he loves, fire alighting the forest bed, the night air humid and warm. 

And after having danced with Shiro, who had been laughing in his arms but also stumbling, he suddenly has to look much further up. Lotor is looking confused and Lance has a feeling he’s been thrown into Lance’s arms just as abruptly as Lance caught him, and Lance can only laugh, making Lotor swing him around. The drums are becoming louder, and they swing around, tumbling into other dancing couples who ended on the dancefloor for some reason.

At last it becomes so cramped, that they have to stay where they are, and then so cramped that they have to come closer together. Lance can hear Ranma and Diego laughing somewhere as Lance and Lotor swirl in circles, Lotor cool against Lance’s hot skin. 

“You look good tonight,” Lotor tells him.

“I know,” Lance says, even though everybody says that his two hours of prep makes no difference to his appearance whatsoever. 

Lotor looks surprised and then laughs and swings Lance around like he’s Diego and Lance cries out in shock and then laughs.

“You’re not too bad, you know,” Lance notifices, feeling his cheeks flush as he says it.

Lotor rumbles against him, and Lance catches his eyes before taking his hand and widening the distance between them, twisting his hips as he does it. He’s been going easy on Lotor so far, but he has a feeling that Lotor will know how to keep up. 

He shakes his hips as his free arm moves with the music. It’s not tango, not as he used to, but it speaks of the same passion and at first Lotor is puzzled with his rapid movement, that looks like they’re going to end in a fall, so he grabs him last second. Lance holds his eyes as he doesn’t move from his position, only very slowly rising and forcing Lotor to follow his movements. 

After a couple of rounds of this, Lotor finally gets it and is even starting to imitate the quick, calculated moves. He’s having fun, Lance thinks, and at some point he leans closer. Lance feels his heart beat quicker, nervous. He really hopes Lotor isn’t trying to kiss him, because Lance would have to reject him then, and they’re just having so much fun.

Lotor’s hand on the small of his back feels good though, especially when his thumb starts rubbing it in circles. Lance is feeling a little enchanted, when a hard hand tugs at Lance, and startled he turns around.

Shiro is looking at him with a worried stare and he shouts something, that is lost in the sound of the crowd.

“What?” Lance shouts, but he’s already scanning the crowd, realization dawning on him. 

Diego and Ranma are gone. 

  
  



	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to Alliaskofyou for betaing!

It doesn’t actually take that long to find them.

Allura had been watching them during the festivities. They were getting bored with the dancing, and so she had taken them for a walk, keeping them all on the path. They had been abiding her until they hadn’t. Until they had left the path and run into the forest. At first she had thought it was a game, and after having looked for them for ten minutes, she realized that it hadn’t been. She had called Shiro and he got ahold of Lotor and Lance. After that, through the telepathic connection, they had found them not too far away.

An Olkari animal lay between them, as big as an ox. The animal is covered with white feather-like patches, with a big deer-like face and two long tails. Ranma is the first figure Lance sees, his bright pink like a neon-sign in the night. The animal’s stomach is torn open. Ranma is devouring its insides. Diego is at the animals head, its neck broken in a weird angle. Probably because its neck is cut open. All four of Diego’s arms clench around its neck as they suck the blood out, much like a baby would be sucking milk out of their mother’s breast.

They look up when they feel Lance get near them, and chirp and run towards him. Still in shock, he catches them and they click proudly at him.

_ I got food on my own!  _ they gleefully tell him. 

“Oh,” Lance says, like he’s pleasantly surprised. “That’s so good, baby. I’m so proud of you!”

And he is. He really is. His kid is getting self-sufficient. Even though Lance will always be happy to take care of Diego, he also likes that if Diego was ever on their own, he could get by. 

But. 

His kid also kind of murdered a giant animal, which Lance is sure didn’t go down easy. Sure they did it with another kid the same size, but still. Shiro would definitely not like hearing this, and he only just started trusting Diego.

Lance looks at Lotor, who is actually smiling with something that looks like pride. 

“We can’t tell this to the others,” he says.

Lotor abruptly stops smiling. “Why not?” he asks, holding his bloody (literally) baby into his chest.

“Because, human babies don’t-” Lance signals for Lotor to cover Ranma’s ears, and after Lotor has done it as well, Lance does the same.”Freaking murder beings ten times their size.”

“Good thing they’re not human then,” Lotor says, lifting an eyebrow.

“No, you don’t understand.” Lance hisses. “It’s unsettling that they did this without our say-so.”

“Do children do everything adults say where you come from?” Lotor asks, looking genuinely confused. 

“No, but children don’t normally kill things ten times  their size!” Lance hisses. “Look, Shiro barely trusted Diego when I brought them in, and this? Is going to fuck that up.”

“Oh.” Lotor looks at Diego and then at Ranma, appropriate concern starting to form on his face. “What do we do?”

“We have to get rid of the body?” Lance suggests.

“But that would be a waste,” Lotor protests. “They’re so proud of themselves, look at them!”

Lance looks down. They’re preening. “Alright. We have to take credit for the kill then. Tell the team that the creature was… I don’t know, something, and then we had to kill it while the children were there.”

“But hasn’t Diego started to talk?” Lotor hisses. 

“Do you have a better idea?” Lance asks, throwing up his hands.

“Telling them the truth?” Lotor guesses. “What if Shiro and the Princess starts to mistrust me again because of this? Maybe I need to remind you that I have a very fragile alliance on the line.”

“They won’t.” Lance grumbles and lets go of Diego’s ears. “Come on, let’s wash them and come back for the animal later.”

They find a little creek where they wash Ranma and Diego, who can’t for the life of them take anything seriously in their victory and who are chirping and chuckling through the night, getting blood everywhere, making Lotor and Lance also have to wash themselves.

The two moons are red and big in the sky, and reflecting ominously on the water. Lotor’s back is turned against Lance as he washes his tuniqe, the lines of his spine and shoulder blades angular and sharp, his hair almost iridescent in its wet state. Lance tries not to look too much, but has never really been that good at self-control and so ends up ogling very obviously a few times. What? He can appreciate a fine specimen now and then.

His own cleaning affairs are a lost cause though. Diego got themselves absolutely drenched with blood and smeared off on both Lance’s pants and shirt. Quickly sending off a message for the team, he quickly shucks off his clothes, facing away from Lotor. He kneels down to scrub the clothes clean against a smooth rock, only now wondering what lie they should make up about their wet state.

Ranma and Diego are tumbling around in the water.

“Alright, what if we tell them that the animal was attacking them, and we just got there in time?” Lance suggests.

Lotor looks over his shoulder at him. “But what if the Olkari know too much about this animal’s nature to think it’s unusual?”

“Yeah, that would make Shiro suspicious right away,” Lance says, washing his face.

He can tell Lotor is looking at him.

“You’re not really good at lying, are you?” Lotor asks.

Normally that would rise Lance’s hackles, but for now he sighs and shrugs. “Not for the lack of trying,” Lance says, starting to take off his pants. “But you know, if we’re caught, I will take the blame.”

“You think that would be enough?” Lotor asks, not looking away. “For your leaders to trust me again?”

“You’re a parent,” Lance says. “Parents are usually given a pretty long leash when it comes to the safety of their children.”

Finally, Lotor looks away and Lance kneels in the water.

“Hey, you two, be careful,” Lotor calls out. “You know how to swim, Blue Paladin?” 

“Yeah,” Lance answers. “What of it?”

Lotor pauses. “I don’t,” he very hesitantly says, “know how to swim. But I would like for Ranma to learn.”

“Oh, sure,” Lance replies. “It won’t be any problem. When I think Diego is old enough, I’ll definitely teach Ranma as well.”

Lotor’s eyes are on him again. Lance can feel it like snowflakes softly landing on the width of his shoulders.

\----

When Lance and Lotor arrive back at the camp, their clothes are still damp.

“Where have you been?” Shiro asks, standing from the table he and the rest of the team have been sitting at with a few other Olkari. There are drinks on the table and some sort of card game going on, so they couldn’t have been too worried.  “Why didn’t you call us?”

“It’s a long story,” Lance groans, throwing himself into a chair, a sleepy Diego on his lap. “They were at some creek in the forest, it didn’t take us long to find them. We hunted on the way home though.”

“Oh?” one of the Olkari inquiringly asks.

“It was very convenient,” Lotor smoothly takes over, Ranma half-asleep on his lap. “We came across what looked like an  _ Korun. _ ”

“Oh,” the Olkari says, looking a little worried. “I know you probably didn’t know, but those are actually an endangered species we are trying to multiply. They eat up a fungus that is infecting our wildlife.”

“Really?” Lance asks, feeling his face flush with internalized panic. 

“Yes. But you couldn’t have known, so I’m sure the committee will let it drop,” the Olkari continues. 

“I’m sorry,” Shiro takes over, forever the diplomat. “We should have asked for permission before we started hunting.”

Lance immediately feels guilty. Shiro had already told him to not go hunting without asking the Olkari first, but Lance had told him he didn’t have any intentions to hunt while on Olkarion. Now Shiro was taking responsibility for it even though Lance is the who fucked up.

“It’s okay,” the Olkari person stands up. “Did you bring the body?”

“No, we were focused on bringing the children home first and there didn’t seem to be any scavengers in the surrounding area,” Lotor jumps in. 

“Good good. I will send a team to get the body, it will be examined and then you can take it,” the Olkari says but all Lance can hear is the ringing in his ears because if the body is going to get examined, the Olkari will know that it wasn’t Lotor’s sword or Lance’s Bayard that killed it.

“Sure,” Lance nervously agrees, sending a panicked glance in Lotor’s direction. Lotor’s expression shows no immediate reaction, but his hands turns into fists around Ranma’s body. 

\----

They walk back to their rooms in silence. For the first time, Diego feels heavy in his arms, and Lance wonders how long it will be before Diego becomes just as big as Lance. When they’ll be able to hunt and actually know what they’re doing. Lance never appreciated how human children matured physically in the same pace as their psyche. Or maybe they didn’t. Teenagers could and had hurt people before.

But not like this. God, Lance wouldn’t be able to take it, if Shiro wanted to seperate them, or worse, take Diego away. He couldn’t. Lance wouldn’t budge on this; either it was both Lance and Diego or neither of them. Shiro would understand, he had to. They just had to find a way to control these things better, teach Diego how to control their instincts to hunt. Before it could go wrong. Lance knew Diego would never hurt anyone, but after this he’s worried that Diego might.

“Stop worrying,” Lotor says as if he can read Lance’s thoughts. “At worst, we will admit the truth and negotiate from there.”

“Yeah,” Lance says. “Look, I’m sorry for dragging you into this. I know you wanted to be honest from the beginning.”

“I know you are trying to do your best to protect our children.” They stop in front of Lance’s room. “Besides, you know them better than I do.”

Lance looks inquiringly at him. “Is that a good thing?”

“It means they’ll forgive you, and hopefully me too...hopefully quickly,” Lotor says and smiles a little. He stands a little too close for it to seem casual. Afterall, Lance has been with Lotor long enough  to pick out unusual behaviour. Most of the time,Lotor was really good at respecting people’s personal bubble.

Lance looks down, feeling his cheeks flush. What was he embarrassed about? Lotor has already seen him naked.

“Lance,” Lotor says, his hand raising and gently cupping Lance’s jaw.

Lance blinks and looks up. “Look, Lotor…”

“Mmm,” Lotor rumbles and he leans in further.

God, Lotor is hot on all levels, but this had to stop.

Lotor licks Lance’s earlobe. It’s warm and makes Lance tense up, pleasant goosebumps rolling over his skin. He inhales sharply. God, he had to get laid. Lotor presses a wet kiss right underneath Lance’s ear, and Lance’s eyes flutter closed. 

“Wait,” Lance says. “Lotor, look, I’m flattered and honestly you’re, uh, really aesthetically pleasing but -”

“What?” Lotor asks, his whisper crawling into the depths of Lance’s throat.

“I’m not into guys. Men.” Lance steps back, looking up and down at Lotor. The Prince looks surprisingly unruffled. “I’m sorry.”

Lotor lifts a brow. “Alright.”

“Yeah, you know. Boobs.”  _ Please shut up.  _

“Okay.”

“But I still want us to be friends. We’re still friends, right?”

“Sure.”

“Sure. Good. I’m glad to hear. Uh.” He points blindly at his door. “Goodnight, Lotor.”

Lotor smiles like he’s got everything he ever wanted. “Goodnight, Blue Paladin.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Lemme know what you think, so i'll know how much to prioritize this fic!


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